Chapter Text
“Okay, now will you tell us what we're doing here? We were supposed to have this week off.” Dr. Park complained to Lim.
"Yeah, it's early, even if this were a shift! And not warm either.” Claire added, hugging her arms around herself as if it would keep out the cold.
Dr. Browne, Dr. Reznick, Dr. Murphy, and Dr. Park with Dr. Lim in front of the hospital, which was closed for a week for some minor renovations, and it was chillier than normal in San Jose in fall.
“I have an extra hat in my car if you want it.” Morgan offered, trying not to sound too desperate to help her coworker.
“Ooh, that would actually be great!” Claire replied, walking forward, too preoccupied to notice the uncharacteristic offer. At least, she was, before Lim interrupted.
“Nope, we're leaving. You guys can go get hot chocolate together after or something.” Claire and Morgan's eyebrows both furrowed in confusion, and Park snickered quietly.
Morgan kicked him in the shin, earning a glare from Dr. Lim. Meanwhile, Shaun continued texting Lea, uninterested in whatever they were talking about. Dr. Lim continued speaking.
"The hospital has been closed for the next week. All patients had appointments rescheduled, and emergencies are directed to another hospital. Just because we can not work in the building does not mean we can't do something worthy of our time. So today and tomorrow are being dedicated to team-building exercises! An important skill for surgeons is communication, not just between doctor and patient, but the doctors themselves! Trust me, this was all the board’s idea, somehow. This will help. And be fun. Understand?” She finished, looking expectantly at the other doctors.
"Yes.” They all groaned, looking down at the ground.
"Perfect!”Lim smiled. "To the bus!” She spun on her heels, walking towards the parking lot, and the surgical residents looked at each other questioningly.
“A bus? What are we, 12?” Morgan complained, earning yet another glare from Audrey Lim.
"If the hospital is paying for it, it'll probably at least be like a coach bus. Don't worry. No way a FIELD TRIP in a yellow school bus would be approved.” Park verified but sounded unsure.
Especially as they turned the corner and caught sight of a vehicle painted bright yellow.
“I lived on a bus with Steve,” Shaun added, mentioning his brother.
“And I lived in a trailer. We're all reliving old happy memories today!” Claire grumbled, voice sarcastically cheery.
"Here it is.” Lim stopped, looking up at the automobile in front of them as if it were some sort of rocket ship.
The rest of the doctors looked up at it, eyes wide and doubtful. No one moved any closer to the vehicle, partly due to the fact that it appeared to be two screws from completely falling apart.
“What are we all waiting for? Everyone on.” Dr. Lim spoke enthusiastically, and the residents trudged over to the doors of the big yellow bus. They all stepped in, each mumbling hi to the bus driver who looked no happier to be there than they did.
They each plopped down in a seat, throwing their bags in the seats in the back.
“I'm still confused why you asked us to bring so much- What on earth are we going to do with a spare change of clothes and sneakers? And bathing suits? Where are we even going?" Morgan called over the seats to where the older doctors were sitting.
"Time will tell. Now, get comfy, it's gonna be a long ride.” Lim responded. Morgan sighed, looking over to the seat next to hers at Claire. The brunette doctor was fastening her seatbelt, and tightening it.
"What?” Claire asked Morgan, who was staring at her, confusion plain on her face.
"Nothing, I just haven't seen someone put on a seatbelt on a school bus since I was 5 and the bus driver would make us." Morgan teased.
“Ugh, shut up Morgan.” Claire snapped back, glaring jokingly. She kept the seatbelt on though. Morgan turned with her back against the wall and window, legs spread out and crossed across the seat.
“You guys relax, have fun, play games or something! This is what this weekend is all about!” Dr. Lim called from the front of the bus, sitting down as they started moving.
"Weekend? It's Friday morning now and I am having breakfast with Dr. Glassman tomorrow. We always get pancakes.” Shaun replied, causing the other doctors to look up.
“Yeah, what if we have plans?” Alex Park asked, receiving a comment from Morgan instead.
"Like you have plans.” The blonde doctor joked.
“As a matter of fact, Mia and I have been spending more time together before I move out there, she was considering flying out this weekend.” He responded, crossing his arms as if attempting to look more impressive than he did, sitting in the school bus.
"Whatever you were planning on doing, you might want to postpone. We return tomorrow night, actually, probably closer to Sunday morning.”Dr. Lim clarified, answering Alex's question, earning yet another groan from the group of surgeons.
Morgan pulled out a book but Claire couldn't see the cover or title. Shaun did the same, just with a textbook, and Alex pulled out his phone. Claire leaned against the window, watching their surroundings as they drove out of the city.
Most of the ride was pretty quiet, with only a few conversations starting and ending before anything got interesting. They pulled into a parking lot that seemed to go nowhere around 5 hours later, and all four residents were shocked by their stop.
By now Claire was listening to music, Morgan and Shaun had traded Medical journals to read parts of, and Alex was taking a nap. When the bus stopped, they looked out the windows, eyes reflecting their confusion.
"Where even are we?” Claire asked, pressing her face to the window to attempt to get a better view. Dr. Lim ignored the question and instead grabbed two huge bags no one had seen in the back of the bus.
"Are those.. tents?” Morgan asked, eyes squinting with realization. “Oh dear god."
"Yep! We are going on a camping trip! We'll just be here for a night and two days, and this will make the hospital look good! Donors love to see the staff working together well! Now, this is totally safe, there's a little clearing and a firepit and everything. Not to mention a lake! Now let's go.” She ordered, and the residents picked up their bags and walked after her on a thin path into the woods.
They had all packed fairly light and weren't bothered by their backpacks as they made their way through the woods. The bugs, however…
“You couldn’t have put bug spray on the packing list?” Morgan grumbled at Dr. Lim.
“Shh, we’re here.” Their boss said back, as they stepped into a clearing.
They looked around, Audrey made the place seem magical, but all they saw was a little space without trees with a circle of rocks in the center for a fire and a root sticking out of the ground that would be annoying to sleep on. Even following the instructions, it took them about 20 minutes to assemble the tents.
"So… one for the girls and one for the boys?” Park asked, reaching down to pick up his bag and head towards the smaller tent
“Sounds good,” Claire replied, heading into the green tent that she and Morgan took way too long to assemble.
Morgan dropped her bag in the corner along with the pillow and sleeping bag she was now incredibly glad she brought. Dr. Lim dropped her stuff in the other corner, and Claire looked around the small tent before putting her own stuff in the middle.
"What now?” Claire asked when they finished laying the sleeping bags down on the thin sheet separating them from the dirt. Instead of just answering Claire, Dr. Lim walked out of the tent and ordered them again.
“Everyone change into swimsuits, we're going to the lake!” She yelled between the two tents at the two male doctors along with Claire and Morgan, before stepping back into the tent. “Scram, I'm changing in here.”
The other two girls stepped out of the tent, closing the flap that was the door behind them. They stood awkwardly in the clearing, each holding a bathing suit bunched up in their hands along with a towel.
"So… I believe it's either the woods or here.” Morgan spoke, stating the obvious. Claire sighed and shook her head, before turning and heading into the trees. When Morgan didn't follow, she turned.
"Come on, there's no way I'm going alone. We'll turn away.” She told Morgan, bitterly laughing in her head about how she never expected to say any of these words to anyone she worked with, much less Morgan.
Nevertheless, the blonde doctor followed, and when they found a place far enough they walked a few feet away.
“Okay, don't look okay.” Claire ignored how childish her words sounded and pulled her shirt over her head.
“What, you embarrassed, Browne?” Morgan responded jokingly but turned around to face the other direction before starting to change.
They changed quickly, hyper-aware of their surroundings, probably because they were in the middle of the woods and still didn't even know if they were still in California. “I'm done, you almost ready?”Morgan asked, more than ready to get back to where the others were.
"Yeah, I'm done," Claire responded, and Morgan turned to see her yank her hair out from where it got caught in her bathing suit strap.
Claire was wearing a navy one-piece bathing suit, and even though they were both girls and not 13 years old, pulled the towel around herself self consciously. Morgan did the same, and they headed back to where the tents were.
“We have been waiting 4 minutes.” Shaun stated when they returned. Morgan rolled her eyes and threw her bundled-up clothes into their tent onto her sleeping bag.
"Can we just go?” She asked, directing her question at Audrey Lim. Instead of answering, yet again, she walked off into the woods where Claire and Morgan just came from.
"She's kidding, right?” Claire asked for what felt like the 100th time, rolling her eyes when Shaun and Alex just blindly followed.
They both were in swimsuits as well, with shirts on over them. Claire shook her head and followed the three into the woods, Morgan right behind her.
“Are we sure this is even safe? Like if it's actually a campsite or just a random clearing that Lim knows about? I mean what are the chances we'll get murdered tonight?”
"There is a chance of being murdered at any given time, though it is probably significantly higher if you consider we are in the woods alone with no idea what we are doing.” Shaun responded, taking the question literally. Claire winced, although she didn't want an answer in the first place, his response wasn't exactly comforting.
They continued through the woods, stepping over tree branches and around bushes.
"You know what we need? We need a camping song.” Park exclaimed, sounding way too excited.
“That is the first good idea I have heard since we got here! What song?” Lim responded, excited that Park was finally getting into the spirit. Claire took a deep breath and decided if they had to do this they might as well make it fun.
“Anyone know any good camping songs?” Claire asked, looking back at Morgan who was also trying to suppress a laugh. This was definitely not a situation any of them had seen themselves in.
“I don't know, we gotta start with something basic, cup song, anyone?” Lim asked, turning back at them.
“Okay, I’m here, on a CAMPING trip, with my fellow surgical residents and boss, but I am drawing the line at recreating that scene from Pitch Perfect 2.” Dr. Park interfered.
“Okay,” Claire started laughing. “I don’t know what’s funnier. The fact that we are even in this situation, or-” She stopped for a second, continuing to laugh.
“Or that fact that you know that movie well enough to make that reference. It's not even Pitch Perfect, it's the sequel!” Morgan finished Claire’s sentence, laughing just like her friend was. Alex glared playfully, and Lim joined them in their laughter.
“Oh, I get it, in Pitch Perfect 2 they all go camping and end up trying to find their sound again, where they sing around the campfire, not to be confused with when Beca sings it in the first movie for her audition.” Shaun stated, looking at all of them. The others looked up at him, eyes wide.
“Wh- why do all of my residents know the premise of the sequel of this movie?” Lim asked, raising her eyebrows.
“It is Lea’s favorite movie.” Shaun justified his knowledge of the case. The five of them joked about the topic for several minutes as they continued through the woods. By the time they finished, they had reached the lake and dropped their bags on the rocky ground.
“Wow”, Park breathed as they looked at the view. The lake in front of them was smooth, almost more like glass and water, and there were mountains behind it. They marveled at the view for a few minutes, before Morgan spoke.
“So, what are we gonna do?” She unwrapped the towel from around her and hung it over her shoulders instead, showing a little more of the bathing suit she was wearing. Claire kicked the pebbles beneath her feet.
“We can swim, or just kind of sit around. I know Shaun has a book, it is a pretty great place to read. Or, I have a ball, and we could play some kind of game.” Lim responded to her question, patting her bag.
“I think I’m gonna head in the water. I guess it would be fun, but if no one else is brave enough I guess I can go alone.” Alex said, challenging Morgan as he headed towards the water.
“Not if I get there first.” Morgan smirked and replied, kicking off her shoes and towel before sprinting after him towards the shore.
Claire laughed at their bickering- the two had known each other longer from their old residency, and still seemed to be competing. Either way, it was always entertaining watching them try to outdo the other. Shaun sat down and pulled out his book, carefully turning the pages until he got to his bookmark.
Claire threw her towel on the rock next to where she was standing, and sat down on it, lifting her feet to cross her legs.
She watched the two doctors already in the water, chuckling quietly as she saw Morgan splash Alex before diving under the surface. She looked around at the beach. A few feet off there was a path into the woods to a cliff looking over the water. The view from there was probably great, she’d have to check it out at one point.
Somehow it was even hotter at the lake, and Claire grabbed the sunscreen that Dr. Park had thought to include in his bag. Giving up on trying to find a shady place to sit, she turned to the water. She looked over to where Dr. Lim and Shaun were sitting, unable to believe they weren’t sweating.
“Hey, I’m going in the water, ‘kay?” She called out, not waiting for a response before walking towards the shore. She paused for a second when her feet touched the water before just heading in. She made her way to where the other two doctors were swimming, listening to their conversation for a minute as she approached.
“Hey, guys.” She alerted them of her presence as she got closer, tying her hair into a bun on top of her head to try and keep it as dry as possible.
“Hey, Browne!” Park responded, smiling at the other surgeon. Morgan nodded a greeting as well, and Claire smiled back at the two of them. She treaded water, somehow the few inch difference between her and the other two allowed them to stand but her to not quite touch the ground.
Morgan noticed and laughed quietly before moving towards the shore a little, heading to an area where the shorter doctor could stand. Claire smiled her appreciation.
“Wow it’s hot out today.” Alex stated, dumping his head underwater to wet his hair. Morgan pulled her own hair back into a ponytail, saving her the inconvenience of having to push it away from her face.
“Yeah, I was sitting back where Lim and Shaun are and it was so hot you couldn’t even imagine- I’m pretty sure I am sunburnt from just the five minutes I sat there,” Claire added on.
“Sunburns suck. Sometimes when I was a kid and my parents were in town they’d bring us all to the beach, and could never manage to last the day without a nasty burn.” Morgan told the two of them, picking a piece of seaweed off of her shoulder.
“So, you burnt easy, sometimes you went to the beach, tell us more about young Morgan Reznick.” Claire asked, her voice a mix of amusement and curiosity. Morgan laughed before continuing.
“Not very interesting, just normal dysfunctional family stuff, you know.” She joked, ignoring Claire’s empathetic glance and instead questioning her. “What about you, what was the childhood of the great St. Claire like?” Claire glared, but the nickname felt more like an inside joke more than a mean comment nowadays. Anyway, she answered.
“You knew Breeze. Lovely addict-mother stuff.” Claire answered, looking back at the other two doctors.
“Wow, are you guys okay?” Alex frowned, only half-joking, and drawing a laugh from Morgan and Claire. A few minutes later after they stopped laughing and moved onto other subjects, Claire looked up mischievously.
“Anyone know any fun water games?” She asked, looking at Alex and Morgan.
Morgan grinned, before looking over at where Shaun and Lim were sitting to wave them over. Alex responded, suggesting a few games.
“Well, there’s always Marco Polo, but not gonna lie that always kind of stresses me out.” Claire nodded in agreement as Park continued. “We have a ball, so we could play some sort of water volleyball or something. Or we could always resort to a chicken fight.”
“Not gonna lie, that actually sounds like fun. We could get Shaun over here to play!” Morgan added, diving underwater to start to swim to shore.
A few minutes later she returned, dragging a disgruntled-looking Shaun by the arm.
“So, what if I don’t want to play? The rules are questionable and there does not seem to be any point to this game.” Shaun asked, standing awkwardly next to the group of them in the water.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun! So… Claire and Shaun vs. Morgan and I?” Dr. Park asked. Morgan smiled mischievously at Claire, definitely planning on winning.
“Sounds good!” Claire replied, returning Morgan’s facial expression.
Alex and Shaun dunked themselves under the water, and the two girls sat on their shoulders. Shaun resurfaced, lifting Claire out of the water as he stood, and she scrambled for a purchase to keep her balance.
When she looked back up the other two were ready, Morgan fixing her hair and Alex holding onto her ankles. “Ready, set, Go!”
Shaun and Alex both walked forwards, and Claire and Morgan each put their hands out to try to push the other into the water. Attempting to both block themselves and push the others off, they ended up gripping each other’s hands with their arms extended, trying to push the other backwards.
Claire narrowed her eyes at Morgan competitively, and was able to take Morgan by surprise when she shoved her backward.
She caught herself at the last moment, earning a curse word from the doctor under her when she grabbed at Alex’s hair, before grabbing Claire’s hands again. Both of their arms ended up making ninety-degree angles, still trying to push the other one backward, their foreheads almost touching.
Both of them glared at each other before laughing. Claire could see the green of Morgan’s eyes up close, and noticed the little flecks of color.
Shaun and Alex moved backwards slightly, and they were further again, trying to push each other with their arms extended. Claire shook her head, and kept pushing back at Morgan’s hands. The two doctors glared playfully at each other, both determined to win. Alex moved forward, and the two girls were closer again.
Claire was focusing on pushing back on Morgan’s shoulders, their eyes still locked. Morgan smirked and winked at Claire, who immediately blushed and let down her guard for a second.
Morgan took advantage of this and shoved the other doctor backwards, causing her to fly off of Shaun’s shoulders and into the water.
Claire resurfaced to Morgan climbing off of Park’s shoulders, the two of them yelling, “We won, we won, we won,”. Claire made her way back over to them, glaring at Morgan.
Morgan’s glance softened momentarily, which confused her even more. Yeah it was a little mean, but when was she not completely satisfied with winning no matter what? Though a small part of her was intrigued by Claire’s reaction.
Meanwhile, Claire stopped swimming when she got back to where Shaun was standing, about 3 feet from where Morgan and Alex continued chanting. A sharp pain stabbed at Claire’s foot, and she lifted it closer to the surface to see a red line across the bottom of her foot start to ooze blood.
“Shit- I cut my foot on one of the rocks. I’m gonna head to shore.” Morgan’s eyes widened with guilt, she didn’t mean to hurt Claire when she pushed her off.
Stop, It’s Claire, you work with her. She just scraped her foot it has nothing to do with you. Morgan pushed the thoughts out of her head before swimming after Claire to help.
“Hey, you okay swimming?” Morgan asked, struggling to keep the concern out of her voice.
“I’m good, I just scraped it. I’ll just grab a bandaid. Thanks for checking though.” Claire responded, turning so the other doctor wouldn’t see the blush that crept across her cheeks.
She was still annoyed that Morgan won, even more annoyed about why. Definitely not happy how Morgan knew how that would throw her off.
She was still thinking about it when she got to shore, stopping at the edge of the water. She looked down at the sand for a second, trying to decide a way to get to her bag without getting sand in her foot.
“Here.” Morgan said, reaching an arm under Claire’s to support her so she didn’t have to step with that foot.
Claire smiled appreciatively. It was a shallow cut but her foot hurt like hell. They made their way to the rock Claire was sitting on and Morgan let go so she could sit. The blonde doctor stood there awkwardly as Claire fished around in her bag, before sitting next to her on the rock.
“Interesting game, huh?” Dr. Lim spoke, surprising both of the girls. She hadn’t seen much, in fact, she was incredibly uninterested in anything but her book right now. Nevertheless, Morgan narrowed her eyes at Claire competitively, willing the guilt to leave her eyes.
“Well, Park and I won.” She joked, looking up at Lim before back down at the ground. Claire finished patching up her foot, glad to have something to be doing.
“Only because- ugh.” Claire responded but stopped halfway.
“I’m definitely not complaining, we did win.” Park exclaimed as he walked out of the water. Claire and Morgan hadn't seen him approach, and both looked up.
Dr. Lim chuckled from where she was sitting.
Claire shot an evil glance at the head of surgery, who was still reading her book, before moving.
She laid her towel a few feet away from where Shaun was now sitting, and sat down on it.
Morgan dropped her own towel down a few feet from Claire, laying down with her arms propping herself up. Morgan looked around at the group of them, her eyes resting on Claire for a second before lying down with her head on her backpack.
The brunette grabbed a few rocks from the ground next to her towel, stacking and lining them up to make pictures. She shook her head, laughing at how childish the act was, but kept at it. She had stacked 8 rocks of different shapes and sizes when she was interrupted.
“What are you doing?” Shaun asked, causing Claire to almost knock it down.
“Nothing really, it’s just kind of fun. And shh, I think Morgan is sleeping.” Claire responded, causing the both of them to look over at the blonde doctor still lying on the towel.
Shaun joined her, and the two of them attempted to stack as many rocks as possible. About an hour or two passed, and by now Claire was reading the book Shaun had brought. Alex and Dr. Lim had both gone in the water, and had been talking while swimming laps between two rocks.
Claire looked up and saw them swimming back, and checked her watch.
“Wow, it’s already four.” She thought out loud, causing Shaun to look up.
“Yeah, we should probably head back to the campsite. The food will probably take a little while to prepare, and we should probably check to make sure nothing has been taken by bears.” Claire looked up, alarmed, only to realize by the smile on her face that Lim had been joking.
Alex and the head of surgery grabbed their towels, and Claire headed over to where the blonde doctor was resting to wake her. She crouched next to Morgan and gently shook her shoulder.
“Hey, we’re heading back to the campsite.” Her voice sounded soft, even for her. Morgan opened her eyes, leaning forward.
“m‘kay.” Morgan spoke, shaking the sleep from her eyes. She stood up, and the two doctors joined the others on the path back to the campsite.